Reuters AlertNet - Myanmar cyclone

Myanmar cyclone

Last reviewed: 01-05-2009

WORST ASIAN CYCLONE SINCE 1991

Cyclone Nargis swept across Myanmar on May 2 and 3, 2008, triggering a huge sea surge and killing nearly 140,000 people.
Over 2 million affected
Damage estimated at $4 bln

U.N. appeal underfunded

The storm destroyed villages and paddy fields, seriously affecting up to 2.4 million people in Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta.

One year on, aid workers say at least 500,000 survivors, including 200,000 children, are still living in makeshift shelters cobbled together from tarpaulin and bamboo poles. Their misery is likely to be compounded as this year's monsoon season approaches.

Many farmers are also struggling with crippling debts after the cyclone destroyed their crops and 200,000 farm animals. Rice yields are down nearly a third, mainly due to heavy rains in April and soil salinity after fields were flooded with sea water during the cyclone.

The main aid coordinating body has issued an urgent pre-monsoon appeal for funds to help pay for shelter materials and other assistance. The appeal is part of a three-year, $691 million recovery plan drafted by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), comprising the United Nations, Myanmar and its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The plan faces serious fund-raising hurdles, including a global economic crisis that is squeezing foreign donor governments. Myanmar already receives far less aid than other poor countries due to its dismal human rights record.

The United Nations' $477 million flash appeal, launched after the cyclone to finance immediate relief efforts, was only two thirds funded.

A post-cyclone assessment by the TCG has estimated the damage at $4 billion. It says some 42 percent of food stocks were destroyed.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is feeding 350,000 people, which will be scaled back to 250,000 until the end of the year.

JUNTA RESTRICTIONS

Most of those who died were killed by a 3.5 metre (12-foot) wall of water that hit the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta along with 240 kph (150 mph) winds. The dead included 10,000 who perished in just one town, Bogalay, 90 km southwest of Yangon.

The cyclone was the worst to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.

But the country's ruling generals, who have a deep mistrust of the outside world, were initially reluctant to let foreign aid workers into the country, sparking strong international criticism.

After three weeks, Myanmar's junta finally agreed to admit international aid workers, albeit under tight restrictions. The government accepted relief flights into Yangon but rejected offers of French and American ships delivering aid. The military regime also let WFP airlift supplies into the delta and allowed in medical teams from Southeast Asian neighbours.

Before his breakthrough deal with the junta, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said aid workers had only been able to reach around a quarter of those in need.

Aid workers say much has been achieved since, but it will take years of sustained international support for the worst hit areas to fully recover.

Some had expressed initial optimism that their work in the cyclone area could lead to more humanitarian space elsewhere in the country. But the generals have dashed any hope of that, arresting activists who led private cyclone relief efforts and tightening their grip ahead of scheduled 2010 elections.

The regime said in February it would only extend the TCG's mandate to the middle of 2010, although it was not clear how the decision would affect foreign agencies operating in the delta.

MONKS DELIVER AID

Following the cyclone survivors crammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings after arriving in towns that were on the breadline even before the disaster.

The homeless clamoured to get into privately run shelters rather than government-run camps. In Bogalay, some complained of forced labour and low supplies of food at the state-run centres.

Frustrated by the speed of the official response, ordinary people sent trucks and vans into the delta with clothes, biscuits, dried noodles and rice provided by private companies and individuals. With almost total distrust of the government, private aid was left for distribution by Buddhist monks, who have immense moral authority.

Officials said legal action would be taken against anybody found hoarding or selling relief supplies, amid rumours of local military units expropriating trucks of food, blankets and water.

Some weeks into the aid operation, the United Nations revealed it had suffered significant losses because of distorted official exchange rates. The government later agreed to let outside donors pay local companies directly and in U.S. dollars, rather than via the official, long-winded system involving foreign exchange certificates.

SHELTER

Nargis destroyed 375,000 homes, according to government estimates. The United Nations puts the figure higher at 450,000.

A year on, only 17,000 new homes have been built, according to U.N. estimates, while another 200,000 have been repaired by their owners. But many of these patched-up homes are fragile.

Normally, natural materials such as thatch from palm trees and shrubs are used to make cheap, relatively rainproof roofing, but Nargis destroyed trees along with buildings.

David Evans, acting head of the U.N. housing agency UN-HABITAT, says tens of thousands face the prospect of spending another year living in extremely vulnerable shelter.

Nearly all Nargis survivors received some form of emergency shelter after the storm, including those few allowed into the junta's "model villages" after the generals were criticised for their slow response to the disaster.

But a year on, donor funding for housing has met only 4 percent of the U.N. target. Donors are giving money for education, health care and food, but they consider housing and infrastructure the government's responsibility, says Andrew Kirkwood, country director of aid agency Save The Children.

Agencies are handing out new tarpaulins, while UN-HABITAT has appealed for $10 million to provide temporary roofing materials.

AGRICULTURE AND DEBT

The Irrawaddy Delta, an area covering some 23,500 sq km, is known as the country's rice bowl.

Across the cyclone zone families are seeing mounting debts and shrinking crops. Output has fallen due to soil salinity, lost livestock, a lack of credit and outbreaks of pests damaging paddy fields.

Some 175,000 households in Bogale and Mawlamyaingkyun - two hard-hit areas in the delta - have suffered crop losses due to brown hoppers, while farmers in Labutta and Kungyangone have battled rats.

Meanwhile, prices for rice and other commodities have plunged along with the global economy. Add to that the rising cost of inputs like fertiliser and many farmers say growing rice is no longer commercially viable.

A study by the World Food Programme in February found 80 percent of respondents in Myanmar were in serious debt. Some families are thousands of dollars in debt - a huge sum in a country where many earn less than $2 a day. Losses from Nargis have forced people to turn to private lenders who charge interest at between 8 and 20 percent.

REFERENDUM

Despite the cyclone, the junta went ahead with a referendum on May 10, 2008, on a new constitution - part of the army's much-criticised "roadmap to democracy", and said 92 percent voted in favour. The opposition and Western governments said it was a blueprint for the generals to cement their grip on power.

Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta since 1962. The referendum was postponed by a fortnight in areas hit by the cyclone.

Western governments led by the United States and Britain have also criticised the planned 2010 poll as a sham aimed at entrenching rule by the military, which refused to recognise the last election won in 1990 by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

For more background on the country see Myanmar troubles.

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